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6 takeaways from the debate

Mitt Romney and President Obama sparred at Hofstra University in New York. | Reuters

5. Contrary to their claims, these guys really don’t like each other

There are few times in modern presidential debate history when candidates have been so physically close by choice. During a protracted exchange early on, Obama and Romney closed in on one another, interrupting, raising hands, trying to get words in edgewise.

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At times, it seemed perilously close to a fistfight.

Obama’s personal dislike of Romney seemed a bit deeper and more personal; the Republican’s disdain evidenced itself in more policy-oriented barbs. At the same time, Obama clearly realized at a certain point in the debate that he had gotten under Romney’s skin, and it was at that moment that he started enjoying himself.

The president grinned broadly the more flustered Romney got. He joked about the size of Romney’s pension when the Republican said Obama also has investments in places like China. It was similar to how Obama handled Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary debates.

This may be the height of the nastiness, since the next debate is foreign policy only. But then again, maybe not.

Either way, the mudslinging is also potentially unappealing to voters at home.

6. Oh, and did we mention 2016?

It was at one point difficult to keep track of the potential 2016 candidates roaming the post-debate spin room. Over here was Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Over there was Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. And nearby was Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.

But wait … there’s New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo!

The typically national press-reclusive Democratic governor of the Empire State had not been announced as an Obama debate surrogate, and his appearance in the spin room was a surprise.

Cuomo was asked about the criticisms of how Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the de facto 2016 Democratic front-runner who hasn’t yet said whether she will even think about running, has handled Benghazi. He demurred, not mentioning Clinton’s name as he said he felt Obama’s pain on the issue, as someone who, in his gubernatorial capacity, appoints commissioners but takes the responsibility for their actions.

It was all a heady reminder for reporters, and political junkies, of what lies ahead very soon after 2012 — and that 2016 has begun even before this campaign officially ends.

Readers' Comments (449)

The second time watching makes me see Obama as the very clear winner. Mitt looked blood shot eyed, mean tight mouthed.. and he was kind of scary. He tried to Bully Obama but Obama was strong and at ease. Obama seemed relaxed and smart, and never allowed Mitt to push him around, although the guy tried. Romney also kept repeating himself. The first question he seemed like some desperate begger trying to make the case he can create jobs. He kept saying it over and over. It was weird. Mitt did not have a good night, imo. At the end, you could see on his wifes face that she knew Mitt had lost.

It simply amazes me that Republicans can get away with taking 8 trillion dollars out of the American economy in 2008, cause massive unemployment, give Obama a trillion dollar yearly deficit as a house warming present and then wonder why there is no money for job creation in the private or the public sector for the past 4 years under Obama.

At a time when America is struggling to get out of the worst recession in any of our lifetimes, Romney comes out and says in his infinate wisdom, 47% of you are bums, you're moochers and you won't take responsbility for your life. nvm that it's my parties economic and military policies that put you on food stamps and sent you off to war so you could spend the rest of your life in a wheel chair.

Then Romney suggests going back to the Bush policies that got you into this huge mess in the first place by offering a 20% tax decrease across the board (5 trillion dollars) and a 2 trillion dollar increase in military spending as a receipe for fixing your country?

I thought Republicans were so worried about deficits?

Hasn't anyone in your country learned from the disaster called Bush? Or is partisan politics so bad in your country that you are blinded to simple math?

Obama exposed Romney as someone who only cares about wealthy people like himself, and only PRETENDS to care about the middle class when the microphone is turned on and "everyone" is listening.

Obama reminded the voter that Romney will say ANYTHING to get elected, even if it is the exact opposite of what he said previously. And when Romney thinks no one but his wealthy friends are listening, he insults half of America as victims and dependents, even those who EARNED Social Security through a lifetime of work paying into the system and veterans who EARNED their VA benefits from fighting for this country.

Obama did a good job of out alpha-male'ing Willard, but without trying to be so macho that it turned off women voters (face it, nothing turned off women voters tonight so much as Romney's answer to the equal pay for equal work question, Binders and all).

Solid win for Obama, and enough to help him re-set the narrative going into the final stretch.

Obama absolutely destroyed Romney. Obama stood his ground in the face of Romney's attacks, and did not let Romney get away with his customary bullying. Romney attempt to lie and say that Obama did not call the Lybia attacks an "act of terror" the next day was forcefully called out. Obama's final statement was amazingly eloquent, containing a devastating attack on Romney's 47% comment. This was a brilliant performance by Obama.

The facts: On September 12, the day after the attack that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Obama said in comments in the Rose Garden that he had learned about the attack on the consulate the night before.

"Our country is only as strong as the character of our people and the service of those both civilian and military who represent us around the globe," he said. "No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America. We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act. And make no mistake, justice will be done."

On September 13, at a campaign event in Las Vegas, Obama vowed to bring the killers to justice. He then added, "No act of terror will dim the light of the values that we proudly shine on the rest of the world, and no act of violence will shake the resolve of the United States of America."

Here's me paying bills with less, filling the gas tank and the shopping cart and paying those cancer hospital bills and writing checks for unemployed family members. We run away from nothing. We pay our bills and honor our commitments. We never took out crazy loans that default to 26% interest and then boohoo those Wall Street guys used us.

If Obama had come out like this in the first debate we'd all be talking about the baseball playoffs right now because the election would be so one-sided it would barely be news anymore. The guy can bring it when he needs to.

I think it was a draw. Obama's only chance of "winning" the debate is stop the large loss of life in his campaign since his first debate. Comparing pension s is a low blow that looks petty and both had many instances of being cut off by Candy and made them sound petty. It looks very unpresidential, but many moderate news organizations report more on Romney's flops.

Obama absolutely destroyed Romney. Obama stood his ground in the face of Romney's attacks, and did not let Romney get away with his customary bullying. Romney attempt to lie and say that Obama did not call the Lybia attacks an "act of terror" the next day was forcefully called out. Obama's final statement was amazingly eloquent, containing a devastating attack on Romney's 47% comment. This was a brilliant performance by Obama.

Crowley has stipulated now that Mitt was technically right. Olebama said the US would not tolerate terrorist attacks but DID NOT specifically label the Libya attack as such. But, let's stipulate that's what the Prez meant when he mispoke. This exchange ensures that Libya will be the main takeaway from this debate. Additionally, Obama has fallen into a trap of hiw own making; he has now admitted that he knew it to be a terror attack almost the next day, maybe sooner.

1.Why then did his UN ambassador spend the next week trying to convince the public that it was a mob action when the administration knew it to be false?

2.Why did Obama go on Letterman with this claim if he knew it to be false?

3. Why did he go before the UN and media outlets to blame the attack on a video, all but apologizing for our 1st amendment, when he knew this to be false?

4. Why did he go to a fundraiser in Vegas the next day if he knew our consulate had been attacked by terrorists? And on to Colorado the next day when our OTHER embassies were still under siege in Egypt and Tunisia. If 3 of our diplomatic posts(4th in Yemen I believe) are under attack shouldn't the President be more occupied with these threats than whooping it up in Vegas?

Clearly, this Rose Garden statement is not the narrative originally spun by the administration.

Tuesday, Oct 16, 2012 08:36 AM PDT Five disturbing stories that reveal the real Mitt A close look at Romney's past reveals many warning signs -- some even worse than driving with his dog on the roof

By Lauren Kelley, Alternet

Mitt Romney’s infamous dog-on-the-roof-of-the-car story is atrocious, and has been mocked within an inch of its life. But there are many other stories from the Republican presidential candidate’s personal life that illuminate what kind of a human being he really is. Here’s a look at a few of them.

1. Mormon women have reported “horror stories” about Romney from when he served as a Mormon bishop.

According to investigative reporter Geoffrey Dunn, several Mormon women have reported disturbing stories about how Romney treated them while he was an LDS bishop and “stake president.” (One Mormon woman who’s known Romney since the ’70s called them “horror stories.”) In one story, a woman who was facing a life-threatening medical condition was advised by her doctor to terminate her eight-week pregnancy. Despite receiving the blessing of her local stake president, Romney, then a bishop, reportedly came to her hospital room uninvited to pressure her not to go through with the abortion. “At a time when I would have appreciated nurturing and support from spiritual leaders and friends,” Sheldon has written, “I got judgment, criticism, prejudicial advice, and rejection.”

In another incident, Romney reportedly pressured a woman to put her son up for adoption because, according to the woman, her son “didn’t have a Mormon father in the home and because of the circumstances of his birth–being born to a single mother.” She said she felt attacked and intimidated by Romney.

Other details from the report reveal that Romney “never seemed to be particularly comfortable in the company of unmarried Mormon mothers.”

These stories, and others from Dunn’s reporting (not to mention Romney’s wavering, but always troublesome, abortion stance), illustrate a man who is ill-suited to govern the female half of the U.S. population.

2. He reportedly pushed Bain employees to lie to get information.

In a recent story in Vanity Fair, Nicholas Shaxson interviewed one of Romney’s former Bain employees, who said he remembers his old boss being “nice,” “fair” and encouraging,” but also someone who had no problem bending the truth.

Romney, the person says, suggested “falsifying” who they were to get such information, by pretending to be a graduate student working on a proj­ect at Harvard. (The person, in fact, was a Harvard student, at Bain for the summer, but not working on any such proj­ects.) “Mitt said to me something like ‘We won’t ask you to lie. I am not going to tell you to do this, but [it is] a really good way to get the information.’ … I would not have had anything in my analysis if I had not pretended.

“It was a strange atmosphere. It did leave a bad taste in your mouth,” the former employee recalls.

This probably shouldn’t be a huge surprise, given the whoppers Romney has been telling on the campaign trail, including in the first debate.

3. He paid for his son and daughter-in-law’s surrogacy agreement, which included an abortion clause.

Speaking of Romney’s hard-to-pin-down stance on abortion, a recent story about his son Tagg, who had twins through a surrogate earlier this year, reveals that Romney seems to fall into the “abortion for me, but not for thee” viewpoint so common among conservatives. As AlterNet’s Sarah Seltzer recently noted:

TMZ released a blog post this weekend explaining that in the surrogacy agreement signed by Mitt Romney’s son, Tagg, there were clauses that allowed both the parents and the surrogate to opt for an abortion in non-life-threatening (but serious) situations.

There’s evidence that the clause may have been included by mistake, but:

Still, the fact they did allow the clause in — and indeed, that it’s a standard part of surrogacy agreements — is telling, because it’s totally reasonable to have those kinds of clauses in a surrogacy agreement. Surrogates shouldn’t be compelled to complete pregnancies that threaten their health. That’s common sense, right? Not in Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s dream world.

As Kathleen Geier so perfectly put it, “I don’t doubt that, like the vast majority of elites, Romney would support abortion rights for his own family members for any reason, because rich white Christians by definition are not those slutty, trashy people running around having the ‘wrong’ kind of abortions, just for the hell of it.”

Americans, this is your Republican nominee for president of the United States.

4. He’s annoying his neighbors by quadrupling the of his beach house.

So, about that $12 million beach house: the Romneys plan to make it four times its original . Unsurprisingly, the neighbors are not thrilled – not only because of the “impact on the neighborhood,” but because of their political leanings.

The New York Times‘ Michael Barbaro talked to several of Romney’s neighbors in June and found that many of them are Obama supporters and at least a few are gay couples, like Randy Clark and Tom Maddox.

The men, who married in San Francisco four years ago, were asked by Mr. Romney’s architect to sign a document that stated they have no objections to his planned renovations, which would obscure a portion of their ocean view. They refused.

Mr. Clark, an accountant, is trying to organize a campaign fund-raiser at his home for President Obama and hopes to bump into Mr. Romney on the street, so he can explain, “in a neighborly way,” why he thinks his relationship with Mr. Maddox deserves the same rights and status as the marriage between Mr. Romney and his wife, Ann.

Good luck getting neighborly with the Clark-Maddox household, Mitt.

5. He publicly berated a man for drinking and smoking weed.

As Barbaro reported in June, the Romneys “have tried to weave themselves into the fabric of local life” in La Jolla, Calif. But the way they’re going about that social weaving is a little odd. For instance:

Mr. Romney and his wife take regular walks around La Jolla, exchanging pleasantries with fellow strollers and occasionally enforcing the law. A young man in town recalled that Mr. Romney confronted him as he smoked marijuana and drank on the beach last summer, demanding that he stop.

I can think of a lot of ways to ingratiate yourself with the neighbors; ordering them to stop drinking and smoking is not one

yeah, Mitt was seething with hostility and trying to be over assertive or something. He seemed like a jerk who kept trying to bully Candy. I did not like it. He would get angry when he felt he did not get his due and force himself into the debate and talk over Candy again and again to make small fry points. I did not like it. And Mitt made mean faces a lot. He came off as threatening, but Obama was relaxed and did not let Mitt scare him. Obama seemed strong and full of graceon his feet last night.